Yep, that's the Jevons paradox at work here (look it up on the net if you don't know what this is). The huge improvement in the performances of Christmas lighting thanks to LEDs has not so much resulted in an equally huge reduction in power consumption, but in an increased usage of the technology instead. This arises as a result of the fact that most of us reason in terms of total "budget" instead of "consumption rate". The efficiency of the technology improves, but in many cases the total budget remain constant or decreases only in a fraction of what is really possible thank to the new gain in efficiency. The result is thus a net increase in the total number of lights... This effect applies also to other lighting areas as well, especially in architectural applications (see the illuminated buildings in large Asian cities for instance, the lighting there was not that insane before the advent of lighting-grade LEDs).

@Max: Thanks for pointing to Jevons Paradox - I know the fact but didn't know it's named this way.

@dor123: The link doesn't work. 8000lm is fine if it can be dimmed (either by dimming a single luminaire or selectively turning on/off multiple lights as needed). We have about this light level in our living room and it's not too much. It's 4 lights that can be separately switched on/off.

Jevon's paradox, OK now I can put a name to what I have been witnessing.
People haven't been using LEDs to reduce power consumption. They've been using the same watts to drive MORE LEDs to over-light everything, and worse of all, in some places they leave the LEDs on all day!

Dor123, I think you are Israeli? Don't know if you guys celebrate Halloween, but we are pretty fond of it in USA. It used to be a "dark" holiday, usually we would just use fluorescent blacklights and neon flicker flame bulbs. But, recently, people are using what was once reserved for Christmas lights as Halloween lights, and to me, it sucks. Halloween is becoming too bright.

@takemorepills: There are Christians here in Israel. In Haifa, there are large amount of Christians at The German Colony and at Wadi Nisnas. There are several Christian schools at Hadar city center. Also lots of migrants from Ukraine and other former USSR countries, celebrates Christmas and Novy God (The name of the New Year Day in former USSR country).
These lights are part of a festival in Haifa called "החג של החגים" (The holiday of the holidays), as in Haifa are both Jews, Christians and Muslims.

I"m don't speak english well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.